Art Expression Version 1.0


                                      by
                                Peter Billing


    Ed: Peter, who is a senior teacher and uses the Amiga extensively in his
   work, suggests you think twice before buying this program. Read on and see
   why.


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   After waiting for about 2 years for this program to appear on the shelves
   of the computer shop, I bought it as soon as it appeared. I normally wait
   for somebody else to buy it and review it.

   Art Expression is a structured drawing program by Soft-Logic. Its main use
   is supposed to be for making clip art for PageStream. The package comes
   with four disks, three manuals and a reference card. One disk holds the
   Art Expression program, one BME, Soft-Logic's paint program and the other
   two fonts. BME is included for its trace facility. It is version 1.1.2
   which is newer than what comes with Hot Links. The font disks contain 35
   font files but only 11 type faces. This is similar to the way Final Copy
   counts fonts. Of the three manuals, one is a reference to Art Expression,
   the second is a tutorial for Art Expression and the third a reference for
   BME. Both the Art Expression manuals are spiral bound. The BME manual is
   stapled.

   When you register, you are supposed to get another disk with 7 more fonts
   and some structured clip art.

   The look

   Art Expression opens a similar screen to PageStream with a row of tools
   down the right hand side. One of the main differences is that you only get
   one page. The drawing tools available are straight line, box, ellipses,
   regular polygons, lines & arcs, free hand and text. Most of these two can
   be used in two methods, just with the mouse or by holding down a shift
   key. By holding down the shift key rectangles become squares, ellipses
   become circles and polygons become equilateral polygons. Other tools
   include magnification, close path, adding points, deleting points, joining
   points, splitting points, straight lines to curves and curves to straight
   lines.

   Text tricks

   Two of the features I like is the Text to Path and Text in Shape. I was
   after this feature for a long time so I could print good club badges, not
   just scanned pictures. I hate those jaggies. Text to path is as simple as
   drawing a path, it can be as simple as a sloping line to a circle, type
   some text and then select Text to Path from the menus. You are then
   presented with a requestor on the way you would like the text on the path.
   It can be Left, Right or Center justified, spaced to fit and re-scaled to
   fit.

   After the text has been positioned along your line or path, a requestor
   asks if you would like the original text deleted and then if you would
   like the path deleted. An advantage of this is if you do not like the out-
   come you can quickly try it a different way. The text along the path is
   the only objects selected so they can be quickly deleted and the path and
   original text re-selected. Text can be re-edited so you can alter the
   point size and width and add extra words or spaces. This was useful when I
   wrapped the text around a circle and the last letter joined up with the
   first. A quick delete, edit to add a space to the end and you are off
   again.

   Text in shape is very similar. Select your text, a closed object, and then
   the Text in Shape from the menu. You are then presented with a requestor
   asking which way you would like the letters shaped, X warp, Y warp or X &
   Y warp. The X & Y warp used with a circle make the text look like it's on
   a ball.

   Text can only be plain, bold, italic or bold italic. None of the other
   styles available in PageStream are available here. You have to make them
   yourself.

   The magnification tools works the same as in PageStream, just hold the
   small magnifying glass over the center of the part of drawing you want
   magnified and press the left mouse button. Each time you press the mouse
   button the magnification level doubles. By holding down the shift key
   reverses the action.

   A complete drawing is made up of a number basic shapes. These can be all
   grouped together and then acted on as one. These drawings can be saved as
   complete pages or as clips and then loaded into PageStream.

   The downside

   OK. it all sounds very good. Now for the downside.

   1. There was no Hot Links to PageStream. This was probably the biggest
   surprise as Soft-Logic are encouraging other software houses to include it
   in their packages but they do not include it in theirs. There are no
   Macros or ARexx features.

   2. The program only uses Type 1 fonts. Compugraphic Intellifonts and
   PageStream DMF fonts can not be used. If you use the latter two types of
   fonts in PageStream and would like to use them in Art Expression you are
   in trouble. You will need to get yourself some new fonts.

   3. Many of the key board short cuts are different from PageStream.  One of
   these is the fill and line style.  PageStream uses right Amiga + H or J
   for fill and line style.  Art Expression uses small "a" only for both. One
   of the others is the Zooming or View.

               Art Expression  PageStream
       Actual Size     1       4
       Full Page       2       2  They got one the same.
       Full Width      3       6
       Full WorkSpace  4       0 ? Facing pages.
       50%             5       3
       200%            6       5
       User Scale      7       7 And a couple more the same.
       Variable Zoom   8       8

   Apart from the numbers not all matching the key presses are different. Art
   Expression only needs the number to be pressed were PageStream requires
   the right Amiga + a number key.

   I had thought Art Expression would be a very tight match for PageStream.
   How wrong you can be. You have to go through the learning curve again then
   try and not get confused between the two programs.

   4. I realize that Art Expression is not an Architectural drawing package
   but I thought it would have different grid styles other than vertical and
   horizontal lines. There is no isometric or 1 and 2 point perspective
   grids. These would have been very handy for the type of work I do.

   5. There are no fill styles as in PageStream. All that is available are
   colours and shades.

   6. A major problem I am are having is the breaking up of items when
   exported from Art Expression and imported into PageStream. I have taken a
   number of traced drawings into Art Expression and edited the points.  In
   many cases removing many of the points.  The drawing is still a whole
   object while in Art Expression but when imported into PageStream parts or
   points are missing. As an example. You draw a rectangle in Art Expression,
   which only needs four points to be defined, but you put an extra point on
   one side. You remove the point, export the drawing in IFF DR2D format and
   import it into PageStream and find you have a triangle. This also happens
   with text that has been converted into graphics. The serif on the bottom
   of the "Times" letter "T" was twisted and "O" have a horizontal line
   either through the top or bottom of the curve. This can not be removed.

   This problem has made the program useless for the work I had bought it
   for. These 6 points were put in a letter to Soft-Logic and sent to them
   three days after buying the program. I hope I get a new program soon.

   There are other things about the program that annoy me. These things may
   not annoy people who have not used PageStream. Many of the menu items are
   in different positions and as stated before key strokes.

   The version is No. 1, so if you buy the program, watch out.



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